Papadakis

From the technologically revolutionary to the downright ridiculous, this collection of concise musings documents the varied and often humorous relationships humans have developed with members of the plant kingdom.These pithy stories span species celebrated as tribal fodder to delicacies elevated as some of our most valued possessions, from the ultimate symbols of devotion and love to campaigns that resulted in genocide, revolt and the shaping of the global political landscape, demonstrating a relationship between humans and the plant kingdom as broad, wonderful, and strange as the plants themselves.

To pay homage to sacred plants revered by Indigenous groups throughout the Americas is a way of honouring the entire world in a time of environmental emergency. The visual contents of this book magnify life in ways that may alter how humans perceive other living entities from our shared and threatened biosphere. Some of these plants contain the most potent psychoactive agents on the planet and serve as intermediaries that have enabled Native communities to communicate with their ancestors, wage war on the enemies of their land and their traditions, conceptualise entire cosmogonies, and maintain a nearly impossible ecological equilibrium. Each exquisite detail in these vital portraits is not only a way into previously unseen vegetal realms, but also a potential way out of our collective crisis.